TPODN Chapter 30

“Linfei, how does it feel to be a police officer? Congratulations on solving a major case,” Li Haoran said. “Being a police officer is so cool! I often imagine myself becoming one, but it must be tough.”

“Yeah, it’s very tough.” Seeing Li Haoran like this, Wang Linfei thought of his former self, facing the challenge of unknown cases, wanting to become a great detective to solve mysteries. However, the investigation of modern criminal cases has developed rapidly. Wang Linfei needs to rely on various forces to solve cases, which also requires him to understand social skills, and more importantly, to unite various departments to solve mysteries.

“Cooks are progressing with the times, and detectives must also accept changes.”

“A fine ‘progress with the times’,” Li Haoran said vaguely. “Uncle Fan is my grandfather’s most proud disciple, but he is not the most successful. It’s because he is too conservative, or to put it bluntly, old-fashioned. You can tell from his cafe that he is unwilling to accept modern ideas and innovations. For example, some of my grandfather’s apprentices are using the internet to run coffee shop chains, and they are now preparing to go public; or some of my grandfather’s apprentices have used their lifelong coffee-making skills to establish instant coffee brands, and they have also made a lot of money. Of course, I’m not saying anything about Uncle Fan, I just think that with his skills, he should be doing even better.”

Li Haoran’s words stopped abruptly, as someone knocked on the door outside the room.

The waiter brought several cups of coffee, followed by the owner, Fan Keqin.

Li Haoran formally introduced Wang Linfei to Uncle Fan.

“Have you been here before, Li Haoran? Strange, how come I haven’t seen you here before? Your father didn’t even call me. How did you know ‘Guangming Cafe’ is located here?”

“Uncle Fan, I came with my dad before. These years, I’ve hardly left Kenya, I’ve been in charge of the family’s coffee processing plant. Recently, I’ve been troubled and wanted to come back to China to see what’s going on. I think this is a good place for me. Coincidentally, my good brother, college classmate Wang Linfei also likes to drink coffee, and he happened to be on vacation after finishing his work, so we came to ‘Guangming Cafe’ together, wanting him to see a different coffee world. Oh, by the way, Uncle Fan, Wang Linfei is a police officer, he’s very smart, if you’re ever being followed, just find him… hehe.”

Mr. Fan wasn’t very interested in the police, in fact, he wasn’t very interested in any profession. He believed that whether they were writers, artists, or police officers, or just ordinary office workers, they were all doing things for money, and there was no love for their work to speak of.

“Uncle Fan, do you have anything to eat here? I haven’t eaten all day, I’m a bit hungry. Haha, compared to rich coffee, hot food is more suitable for me now.” Wang Linfei drove hundreds of miles to get here, and basically hadn’t eaten a bite. Now he was starving, and when Li Haoran saw this, he yelled, “Mine, mine.”

Uncle Fan smiled slightly and invited Wang Linfei and Li Haoran to the third floor, where there was a huge dining hall, with a quiet crowd, seemingly regular customers.

Wang Linfei was dizzy with hunger, and picked up a buffet plate and started picking out food. The dishes were all old-fashioned, such as Chinese dishes like Mapo Tofu, Twice-Cooked Pork, and Garlic Ribs; but there were also some Western dishes, such as: donuts, burgers, steaks, etc.

Wang Linfei began to devour the food. At the same table with Wang Linfei was a lightly made-up woman, she was eating a donut, taking a small bite, and a white sauce gushed out, flowing to her mouth. The lady laughed loudly, her clear and caring laughter filled the entire restaurant, Wang Linfei and Li Haoran looked at the lady with puzzled eyes.

What’s so funny?

A middle-aged woman immediately appeared beside her, handing her a delicate large napkin. The lady took it, wiping her chin like she was polishing shoes, and exclaimed, “This donut is so good, only ‘Guangming Cafe’ has it! You can drink coffee and eat such delicious donuts, wonderful!”

The lady threw the napkin on the tray and stood up. The lady’s gestures were very elegant, and all eyes were on her. The lady was used to this, maybe she liked it, maybe she no longer noticed it.

But the lady was worth seeing – rather than saying she was beautiful, it was more that she was eye-catching. Although she was older, her hair was still as light as a young girl’s, her slightly wavy yellow hair naturally falling to her collarbone. The lady had a pointed chin, and her eyes seemed to be able to talk, every stroke was a story, with a hooked nose and sunken eye sockets.

The lady had a male-like hearty personality. Coupled with her beauty, even if she only wore simple clothes, it was enough to attract the eyes of many men.

But this outfit looked simple, without any decoration, and no obvious buttons, like a sack over her body, but the lady looked expensive in it.

When Fan Keqin led Wang Linfei and Li Haoran to sit next to the lady, the lady greeted Fan Keqin, and also nodded to Wang Linfei and Li Haoran.

However, Mr. Fan, who was always respectful to customers, wasn’t very respectful to the lady.

“Hello, Mrs. Zhu. Why are you here again?”

“Not welcome, old man Fan?”

“I basically live here. I just drove from my boyfriend’s place in Liubin City, it took four hours. Not bad.”

“If you walk by the river often, you’re bound to get wet, there will always be a day when I’ll hurt myself, or I’ll hurt someone else. Mrs. Zhu…”

“Oh, I hope I won’t.”

“Otherwise, I have a hotel, why would I live here? And I don’t like drinking coffee.”

“Of course, there are delicious ‘donuts’. I haven’t had money to buy donuts recently, so I came here to take a look~”

Uncle Fan quickly scanned around. She seemed to understand the meaning, and couldn’t help but laugh.

“I just enjoyed a delicious donut! Now I’m going to continue looking for some bigger donuts to enjoy.”

“Dear Mrs. Zhu, we also have authentic old-fashioned Chinese food here, you can also try it.”

“‘Beef Offal in Chili Sauce!'” Mrs. Zhu said thoughtfully, “Yes…” She seemed to approve of the dish. “‘Beef Offal in Chili Sauce!'”

Mrs. Zhu nodded and went to find the “‘Beef Offal in Chili Sauce'” dish…

“What a slutty smell, it’s a pity we don’t have lamb skewers. Otherwise, I would definitely recommend it to her,” Uncle Fan said.

“Uncle Fan, this gentleman…” Li Haoran asked in confusion.

Uncle Fan said that he had known Mrs. Zhu since she was a child. Mrs. Zhu was fifteen years younger than him and was also from Dekai City. When she was only fifteen years old, she eloped with a high school dropout. Her family got her back in time, and they used money to get rid of the gangster high school student. As a result, Mrs. Zhu was still not honest. Her family let her steadily marry a local businessman – this man was twenty-five years older than Mrs. Zhu, and the old waste had no way to deal with Mrs. Zhu. Mrs. Zhu didn’t know how many men she had outside in this marriage. As a result, the marriage didn’t last long, and she ran away with a foreigner, but this foreigner died of illness. After that, Mrs. Zhu married a leader of a fresh milk company. A year ago, Mrs. Zhu divorced the leader. I heard that she has been entangled with some unknown star… Anyway, this woman is very promiscuous and can become anyone’s wife, because her surname is Zhu, we have always called her “Mrs. Zhu.”

“It is said that she has no money, and she also does that kind of thing… Forget it, you haven’t verified this, so I won’t tell you young people. In short, Mrs. Zhu’s private life is very chaotic.”

“I wonder if she’s happy,” Wang Linfei said.

Uncle Fan had obviously never considered this kind of question, and he looked at Wang Linfei with surprised eyes.

“Although I don’t know if Mrs. Zhu is very happy, she must be very rich,” Li Haoran said. “Uncle Fan said that her several husbands seem to be quite rich, although not particularly rich.”

“Mrs. Zhu is also a local demolition household, and she doesn’t need to rely on marriage fraud to make a living. But there must always be one or several men chasing her.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course, once some men reach this age, this becomes everything they need… very thirsty, ha…”

Uncle Fan stopped talking.

“No,” Wang Linfei said, “I don’t think so.”

“There are indeed many men in her life. Don’t you think that men are an interest to her, not a need? Just like Uncle Fan likes coffee, there’s nothing wrong with her liking men.”

Wang Linfei doubted, would any man go to “Guangming Cafe” to have a rendezvous with a woman? “Guangming Cafe” was definitely not that kind of place. But for someone with Mrs. Zhu’s personality, going there might be precisely for the atmosphere, or to find true love, after all, the people there were all people with emotional sensibilities.

Wang Linfei and Li Haoran continued eating. At this moment, an old man in military uniform came forward to greet Uncle Fan.

“Mr. Li Mo, thank you for taking care of my store’s business often. Your grandson has also joined the army, good guy, three generations are soldiers, truly a ‘military family’!”

However, Mr. Li politely denied that his grandson had joined the army. Uncle Fan immediately apologized, but Mr. Li didn’t embarrass him, but praised the coffee and food at “Guangming Cafe.”

“Uncle Fan usually likes to chat with customers, but his memory isn’t good, and he often applies one customer’s experience to another,” Li Haoran said.

The three of them finished eating and were walking towards the stairwell. To Wang Linfei’s surprise, Mrs. Zhu was walking upstairs. Wang Linfei remembered that she was in the restaurant a few minutes ago, clamoring to eat “Beef Offal in Chili Sauce.”

Then, Wang Linfei and others were about to go upstairs when Mrs. Zhu suddenly stopped.

Her movements were so sudden that Wang Linfei was taken aback, and his footsteps stopped. Mrs. Zhu stared intently at the third-floor restaurant. Her focused expression made Wang Linfei also turn his head to see what had happened.

He saw a middle-aged man with yellow hair and another tall girl in a white jacket, about twenty years old, with a very delicate appearance and long hair. If it wasn’t for the Adam’s apple, it would have been possible to mistake him for a “boy.” The two of them were at the intersection of the restaurant and the corridor, about to enter the restaurant for dinner.

Wang Linfei recalled that these two seemed to be new to the restaurant, because there were two staircases leading to the restaurant, so Wang Linfei didn’t have much of an impression of the two.

Mrs. Zhu came back to her senses and suddenly turned around. She and Wang Linfei and others went downstairs again and apologized to Wang Linfei.

“Sorry, young man, almost bumped into you.” Mrs. Zhu’s voice was very friendly. “I suddenly remembered something and wanted to go back to the room to get it. Alas, getting old, it’s easy to forget things.”

Uncle Fan told Mrs. Zhu not to run around in the store and shouted that this wasn’t Mrs. Zhu’s playground. Wang Linfei smiled and nodded to accept the apology. At this time, Wang Linfei and Li Haoran returned to “Room Ten,” and Wang Linfei’s mind began to ponder some detailed matters again.

For example, Mrs. Zhu wasn’t telling the truth. At first, Mrs. Zhu was in the restaurant, either because she forgot something and ran to the room on the second floor, or she was originally coming down to meet someone or looking for someone? And when she bumped into Mrs. Zhu, she was clearly walking to the upstairs restaurant, probably wanting to eat the “Beef Offal in Chili Sauce” that she hadn’t found yet. But as soon as she went upstairs, she suddenly froze and went downstairs with Wang Linfei and others, and went to the room on the second floor.

It must be those two new customers. The middle-aged man with yellow hair and that girl. Because at that time, Wang Linfei looked back and saw them, and Mrs. Zhu also saw them before turning around and going upstairs with Wang Linfei and others.

Why didn’t Mrs. Zhu dare to see them?

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